Amanda Lester and the Gold Spectacles Surprise

by Paula Berinstein

  “I’m coming with you,” she said.

  That was unexpected. He’d thought she would warn him off.

  “It isn’t a social call,” he said. Oops, wrong thing to say. When Ivy’s face got red it meant one of two things: she was either mad or she was furious. He wasn’t sure which it was but he knew he was in trouble.

  “You can’t go after Waltz alone,” she said. It was mad. She was probably saving furious for later. But the content of her message was weird. Blixus was the one who had kidnapped Belize, not Waltz. And yet she’d known exactly what he intended. “How did you—”

  “Logic,” she said, shaking her head. “Surely you of all people . . .”

  “You can’t come with me, Ivy. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Exactly,” she said triumphantly. “Which is why you can’t go.” Nuts. She’d tricked him.

  He took her hand and brought it to his chest. “It was my fault. I have to fix it.”

  She squeezed his fingers. Maybe she wasn’t mad. “How was it your fault? You know how devious Blixus is. And anyway fault isn’t the issue. It seems to me that this Belize character is pretty careless. If it’s anyone’s fault it’s his—and Thrillkill’s for giving him custody of the metadata, if that’s what he did. We don’t really know what’s going on. We never have.”

  He studied her face. It wasn’t always easy to tell what she was thinking because her eyes were hidden behind those sunglasses, but he had a feeling something was wrong. And suddenly he knew what it was.

  “You’re angry with him,” he said.

  “Who, Belize? You bet your life I am.”

  “Not Belize. Thrillkill. You feel left out. I can hear it in your voice.”

  Ivy laughed. “Do you seriously think I’m angry with Thrillkill for being mysterious? That’s his job.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” said Simon. “You’re miffed that he doesn’t take us into his confidence.”

  “Am not.”

  Yes she was. He was certain now. Not that he blamed her. Thrillkill’s cloak and dagger act got to him too sometimes.

  “Are too. You think he doesn’t trust us—trust you.”

  “Of course I think that,” she sighed. “Don’t you?”

  “I do, and that’s the point,” he said. “And Buck is even worse. That’s why I have to fix this.”

  “Then I have another idea,” she said, smiling mysteriously. “One that has your name all over it.”

  It had worked before and it would work again. Ivy thought the best way to get to Blixus was through Hugh, and this time she had a doozy of an approach. Simon could flush the kid out by threatening to reveal his technical secrets. They were the one thing Hugh valued and he would go to any lengths to protect them.

  The problem was that they didn’t know what those secrets were. Even Holmes didn’t know, although if he did he’d have kept them to himself. If the history machine was working Simon might be able to revisit the time when Hugh was manipulating matter and deconstruct his methods. But it wasn’t so that was out. But what wasn’t out was making Hugh think they knew his secrets and that meant manipulating matter, or seeming to. All they had to do was make Legatum disappear.

  Blixus and Hugh were always watching the detectives, so if Simon were to do something conspicuous they’d know. And if that something conspicuous was making Hugh think Simon was as powerful a hacker as he was, the boy would come running. Simon and Hugh both possessed outsized egos, but Hugh was insecure and Simon wasn’t.

  It was a brilliant plan and once again Simon had to hand it to Ivy. She was going to make an exceptional detective. Forget that—she was already an exceptional detective. She could probably hang out a shingle right now and get more business than she could handle. He was so proud of her he thought he’d burst.

  Now it was a simple question of implementing the plan. Ivy didn’t think cloaking Legatum would be at all straightforward, but as usual Simon thought he could do anything and already had a strategy in mind. He was salivating at the thought of driving Hugh crazy and getting him to probe harder and harder until he gave away his location. What he wasn’t looking forward to was having David Wiffle in his face while he was doing it.

  “Whatcha doin’?” David said when he saw Simon in the Holmes House common room pounding away on his keyboard.

  “This isn’t your common room,” Simon said.

  “I can be here,” said David.

  Simon made a go away gesture. “No you can’t. Get out.”

  David crossed his arms. “Make me.”

  “I don’t have time for you, Wiffle,” Simon said rudely.

  “You’ll be sorry,” said David.

  “Don’t threaten me,” said Simon. David gave him a sad look. “What, now I’ve hurt your feelings? Boo hoo.”

  “Nope,” said David. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Then get out,” said Simon.

  “What I meant was,” said David slowly, “I’ll make you a trade. I think you’ll be sorry if you pass up my offer.”

  Simon stared at him. What was he trying to pull? “I don’t want anything you’re selling,” he said.

  “How about the truth?” said David.

  Simon’s head swiveled so fast he almost sprained his neck. “The truth about what?”

  “Hugh Moriarty. Blixus. All of them.”

  Simon laughed. “I already know all that. Buck debriefed you. So what?”

  “I didn’t tell him everything,” said David.

  Simon peered at him. “I don’t believe you. And anyway, why would you tell me what you wouldn’t tell them?”

  David’s voice got very small. “Because I admire you.”

  Simon just about fell off his chair. He was so astonished he couldn’t think of one thing to say.

  “And I want to help,” said David in a tone Simon had never heard before. He almost sounded sincere.

  Simon pushed his chair back and tromped over to David, who was standing near the door. “What are you on about, Wiffle?”

  “Cup of tea?” David said brightly.

  Simon looked him up and down. He couldn’t figure out what was going on, but he wanted to find out what the kid was up to. “Okay. But no funny stuff.”

  “I promise,” said David in a very un-Davidish way.

  As they sat sipping their tea, David told Simon that since he had come back from Blixus’s he had been doing a lot of thinking. He’d also been observing, and lo and behold he had decided he liked what he saw. He was so impressed with the cool things the Legatum students were doing—Simon’s history machine was at the top of the list—that he realized he’d made a huge mistake running away. He was born to be a detective. He knew firsthand what horrible people the Moriartys were. Whatever his dad had or hadn’t been, he was going to get on with his life and be the best detective ever. There was no way he was going to let the Moriartys win.

  “I’ll do whatever it takes,” he told Simon.

  Simon frowned. He didn’t trust the dumbass as far as he could throw him. “Very well then. Prove it.”

  “You don’t believe me, do you?” said David without petulance.

  “Why should I?”

  “Fair enough. Just listen, then, and see what you think.”

  “Go on,” said Simon. David did seem different but he wasn’t convinced the change was sincere.

  David leaned forward conspiratorially. “Hugh is obsessed with Amanda Lester.”

  “What, you mean he has a crush on her?” said Simon.

  “Hardly,” said David, snorting. “He hates her guts. He doesn’t like anyone getting the better of him, but the idea of a Lestrade getting one over on a Moriarty makes him crazy. You should have seen him after she captured him. He was mortified.”

  “Big deal,” said Simon. “That’s obvious.”

  “Maybe,” said David. “But what you don’t know is that none of her communications are secure. He reads everything she says and sometimes sends fake messages that look like they’ve come
from someone else.”

  Simon eyed him. “Why haven’t you told her?”

  “I haven’t had the chance. She’s been off in London, Liverpool, all over the place. But now that she’s back we can tell her together.”

  “Fine,” said Simon, “but what has this got to do with a trade?”

  “What I’m saying is that you need to make the cloaking look like Amanda is doing it. Hugh will show up in a split second.”

  “I’m still not following you,” said Simon.

  “I’m offering you information in exchange for the privilege of helping you. That’s the trade.”

  Simon reached out and poked David in the shoulder. “Listen, you. You’d better be on the up and up because if you do one thing to hurt Amanda, me, or the detectives, you’re going to be sorry.”

  David held his hands up in surrender. “I wouldn’t. Not anymore.”

  “And you’ll be nice to Gordon?” Simon thought he’d just throw that in to see how David reacted.

  “Of course,” said David. “He was my best friend. Still would be if I hadn’t been such a berk.”

  Simon tilted his head and squinted at him. Yup. He sure was different. This might end up being interesting.

  When David told Amanda that Hugh had been listening in on her conversations she went ballistic as expected. She ripped him up one side and down the other, then burst into tears and threw herself down on the pink and purple paisley common room couch.

  “Are you telling me that that message from Nick saying he was leaving was really Hugh?” she wailed.

  “I don’t think so,” said David. “He did actually leave, didn’t he?”

  “Unless Blixus kidnapped him,” she said.

  “There’s no evidence of that,” said Simon. “Amanda, he was really suffering. The screaming, the deafness . . . trust me, he went because he felt he had no choice.”

  “Since when does—wait, do you mean Hugh has been listening in on my conversations with Basilica?” said Amanda.

  “Probably,” said David.

  “Which means he knows!” she said.

  “About Nick’s biological mother?” said David.

  “Of course, you twit,” Amanda snuffled. “Now she’s in danger. Well, she already was because of Taffeta, but if Blixus knows . . . don’t you see? Blixus could kill them.”

  “I suspect Blixus already knows about them,” said Simon. “After all, he did adopt that woman’s child.”

  “But it was a double blind transaction,” said Amanda. “And she’s not ‘that woman.’ She’s Nick’s mother.”

  Simon gave her a look. “Don’t be naive.”

  “You mean he’s known all along?” said Amanda.

  “Most likely, yeah,” said Simon. “And he hasn’t killed them yet.”

  “But that doesn’t necessarily mean . . .” Amanda was beside herself. “First Taffeta broke into the Pashmina house—well, her agents, but it was still her—and now the Moriartys are after them? Does that mean . . . OMG. Maybe Nick has answered me and they deleted the messages before they got to me. Or what if they sent him a text in my name that could get him killed? What am I going to do, Simon?” She turned to David and pounded him with her fists. “How could you let this happen, you stupid, stupid boy?”

  David raised his arms to block the blows. “Me? What do you think I could do about it?”

  “You were there,” she screamed. “You could have done something.”

  “Like what—ow—stop that!” he cried.

  Amanda lowered her arms and sat back down. “I don’t know. You had so many opportunities. If you had half a brain you’d have come up with something.” She glared at him. “How could you have stayed with them anyway? What is wrong with you?”

  He looked down at his shoes. “I’m sorry.”

  “Well, you better fix this then,” she said.

  “That’s just what we intend to do,” said David. He glanced at Simon. “Right, Binkle?”

  “That’s the plan,” said Simon. “We’ll fix it, Amanda. Don’t worry. But to be on the safe side you should stay off the networks and use disposable phones for a while.”

  “But how will Nick ever find me if I do that?” she said.

  “We’ll fix it,” said Simon. “I promise.”

  “As if,” she said, and left the room. Simon had never seen her so angry.

  If Hugh was messing with Amanda’s communications it would be even easier to make it seem that she was the one cloaking the school. All Simon had to do was make the signals look like they were coming from her accounts. The only thing he was concerned about was whether Hugh would believe Amanda was capable of such sophisticated computing, which was why he decided to plant a few hints on her devices to make it look as though she’d advanced exponentially.

  If Amanda were back with Holmes he might be tutoring her. And with Nick gone that very well could have happened. Both Hugh and Blixus knew of the past relationship between the two and the fact that Nick had driven them apart. They would easily believe that with Nick out of the way they might get back together. Not that Amanda was incapable of expert computing on her own, but she still had a long way to go. Holmes’s tutelage would act as a powerful shortcut.

  So Simon came up with a few choice tidbits and made sure Hugh would see them. Then he got another idea. What if he were to fake messages between Amanda and Holmes so that Hugh was sure they were back together? It made sense. Without them Hugh would have to infer Holmes’s participation. But with them he’d be certain. David said it was a wonderful idea; Hugh hated Amanda so much he’d eat it up like candy. He would believe anything that made her look bad, and being back with Holmes would do just that. The only problem was making the texts and email sound like Holmes and Amanda. But there was a solution to that: snoop in her phone and use real phrases she and Holmes had written.

  Simon couldn’t believe what a brilliant plan he’d come up with. It did briefly cross his mind that he might be invading Amanda’s privacy, but her feelings about Nick and Holmes were well known. He wouldn’t see anything he didn’t already know about. Furthermore she’d said she wanted him to fix things. She wouldn’t mind.

  And then suddenly he couldn’t help himself. He didn’t care what Amanda and Nick or Amanda and Holmes said to each other but he had to know what Ivy had said about him. He opened Amanda’s texts and scanned hungrily for instances of his and Ivy’s names together. And that was when he saw it, a message from Ivy that shattered his world.

  “I do like Simon, but I like Dreidel too,” she had told Amanda.

  Dreidel? Dreidel Pomfritter, Amanda’s lab partner? Ivy had a crush on him? How could she—she didn’t even know the kid. He never said more than two words, and not to her—Simon would know. What could she possibly—

  He scanned the messages again but there was nothing else. There were a lot of love notes from Nick—they would help with the mission—and some very old ones from Holmes, but nothing else to or from Ivy about him or Dreidel. Why was that? Did he mean so little that she never even talked about him with her best friend? She’d sent Amanda plenty of messages on other topics—Owla’s terrible singing, Stegelmeyer’s awful novels, even gossip about Clive and Binnie, but not a word about him. He didn’t get it. Why wasn’t he on Ivy’s radar?

  What did she mean she liked him? Liked him loved him or thought he was okay? Either way if she liked Dreidel too that would mean she loved both of them—or liked them. He couldn’t fathom what she was talking about. How could she love a boy she didn’t even know? And what was so great about Dreidel anyway?

  Now Simon was upset. That Hugh. It was all his fault. If it hadn’t been for him he wouldn’t have been digging in Amanda’s texts and wouldn’t know that Ivy loved Dreidel and not him. But more than that if it weren’t for Hugh and the rest of the Moriartys there wouldn’t be a Legatum and Ivy never would have met Dreidel in the first place and she’d love him and only him. How dare those Moriartys stand in the way of his perfect love. He would ge
t them if it was the last thing he did.

  And then the wind went out of his sails. He was overreacting. The Moriartys had nothing to do with Ivy’s feelings for Dreidel. The truth was that the other boy was simply more attractive to her, for whatever reason. Despite all of Simon’s love and adoration, all his wonderful qualities, she preferred someone else.

  But wait a minute, that wasn’t right. She’d said she liked Simon and Dreidel. That meant he had a chance. All he would have to do was make her love him more and everything would be all right. He could do that. No way would Dreidel have come up with something like the ivy-forte. The kid was bright enough but he had no imagination. Simon would get Hugh, Blixus, and the metadata, and then he’d win Ivy once and for all. Tough luck, Dreidel.

  Simon was amazed at how much David had picked up from watching Hugh. The kid wasn’t nearly as dumb as he seemed. His knowledge made the task go quickly, at least at first, and within days they were testing a prototype of the new cloaking system. If it worked according to spec, Hugh would not be able to tell that the campus was there. The plot of land simply wouldn’t appear. Of course the fact that the digital communications were cloaked as well was important, but Simon took that aspect of his plan for granted. It was the physical shielding he was most concerned about.

  Cloaking the school would have been impossible without Lovelace Earful’s invisibility technology, which the kids had learned about from one of the three Detective’s Bible pages they had found. But even with Earful’s information and David’s prompting, after that initial spurt of activity the task proved tricky. It was one thing to hide a small object or person, quite another to camouflage an entire school. Simon had to set up a complicated optical system and there were glitches galore. Fortunately David proved useful in this endeavor as well, as there was a lot of running around to be done and Simon couldn’t be in two places at once.

  One side effect the boys hadn’t foreseen, though, was the inconvenience of invisibility. Suddenly delivery trucks couldn’t find their destination and police departments attempting to communicate with the school weren’t able to make contact. Worse, an influential board member, Thaddeus Pumpernickel, wasn’t able to get hold of Professor Buck and ended up quitting in a snit, but as he was a royal pain in the first place Simon didn’t see that as much of a loss. He did realize, however, that if he couldn’t flush Hugh out quickly he would have to give up on the project, the invisibility of the entire school not being quite as much of a boon as he’d thought. But he didn’t have to worry about that as Hugh showed up almost immediately.